Scouring caused by pathogenic bacteria leads to poor weight gain, dehydration and (or) sudden death in newly-weaned pigs (Fairbrother et al. 2005).Commensal bacteria, including butyrate producers, are thought to reduce scouring by preventing colonisation of enterotoxigenic E. coli, whilst improving growth performance and intestinal function through increased villous height (Wen et al. 2012).This study hypothesised that scouring weaner pigs would have a lower abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria in faeces than non-scouring pigs.Individual faecal samples classified as either non-scouring (n = 47) or scouring (n = 26) were submitted from pigs 2 to 3 weeks after weaning from six Australian piggeries; four medicated and two non-medicated.Faecal DNA was extracted using the MagMAX Pathogen RNA/DNA Kit and bacteria were sequenced using universal 16S rRNA primers V4/5 (515F and 806R).Sequences were analysed using the QIIME pipeline with appropriate quality controls and bacterial groups were expressed as abundance relative to total bacteria.The impact of scouring and farm factors on the relative abundance of bacterial taxa was assessed using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) approaches (R, version 3.1.2).Microbial groups in the upper right quadrant are more abundant in scouring weaners, whereas those in the lower left are more abundant in non-scouring weaner pigs (Fig. 1).Faecal microbial communities from scouring and non-scouring pigs clustered separately (Fig. 1B), despite a farm effect (Fig. 1A).The faecal samples from scouring pigs were dominated by Clostridium (#21), Lactobacillales (#14), Enterobacteriaceae (#53) and E. coli (#54), whereas a higher abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria such as Pseudobutyrivibrio (#27), Roseburia (#28) and Veillonellaceae (#39) were recovered from the non-scouring pigs (Fig. 1C).Faecal samples from Farm 1 contained more Ruminococcaceae, Farm 5 had higher numbers of Lactobacillales and Actinobacteria, and Farm 6 had a greater abundance of Porphyromonadaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae (data not shown).The pigs at the remaining farms shared a similar faecal bacterial composition.This study demonstrated an increased abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria and reduced E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae in nonscouring pigs, suggesting that butyrate plays an important role in gastrointestinal tract health, as described previously (Wen et al. 2012).The high abundance of Lactobacillales in scouring pigs could reflect increased antagonistic activity of Lactobacilli against Enterobacteriaceae (Looft et al. 2014).Further studies would help to separate the impact of scouring from farm factors, including diet, antimicrobial use, hygiene and genetics.
Context: Federal regulation mandates that the US National School Lunch Program nutrition standards align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As students consume a substantial proportion of their nutrition during school lunch, increasing access to healthy foods is proposed to improve student dietary outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this review is to assess whether policy changes impacted food-consumption behaviors of students during periods when (1) school wellness policies were implemented (2006–2007); (2) the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed (2010–2012); and (3) the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was implemented (2012–present). Data Sources: PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct were searched for primary research studies. Data Extraction: Policy evaluations and interventions implemented from 2006 to 2016 were included. A total of 31 studies evaluating plate waste, dietary intake, food selection, and/or purchasing patterns were identified and reviewed. Results: Fourteen of 19 intervention and longitudinal observation studies reported improved food-consumption behaviors (increased selection, intake, and sales of healthy foods, and decreased plate waste). Only 2 of 12 one-time observation studies reported food-consumption behaviors meeting target nutrition standards. Conclusions: The majority of studies indicated that increasing access to healthy foods during school lunch improved students' dietary intakes. Challenges related to study design, adaptation period, quality of foods, and policy implementation likely affect a school lunch program's ability to impact students' food-consumption behaviors. Ongoing evaluation of these programs is warranted.
Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the most prevalent types of primary liver cancer, is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer death with rising mortality and morbidity rates. As late onset of HCC accounts for late diagnosis and poor prognosis and early detection increases cure rate from 5% to 80%, identifying reliable and quantifiable biomarkers of risk prediction is of high interest. Aberrations in the DNA methylation patterns, an important early event in carcinogenesis, have been shown to differentiate HCC tumors from normal tissues. However, these changes as predictive markers would have a high application in clinics only if detectable by minimally invasive tests like blood test. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of DNA methylation profiles in blood DNA collected before diagnosis with HCC. Aberrant methylation was investigated in DNA isolated from blood of 21 HCC patients (cases) who provided samples between 1-4 years prior to diagnosis and 21 controls enrolled by the Indiana Biobank of Indiana CTSI. Cases were matched with controls for gender, age, ethnicity, hepatitis C infection, and diabetes. We used Infinium Human Methylation 450K BeadChip array for genome-wide DNA methylation analysis and pyrosequencing for validation of DNA methylation differences. We found 966 probes differentially methylated between cases and controls with p<0.05 and intraclass correlation coefficient >0.5. Among these significant changes, 732 CpG sites are hypomethylated in HCC cases compared to matched controls and include 130 CpGs corresponding to 75 genes with delta beta value (differential methylation) ≥0.1. Forty six CpG sites out of 234 significantly hypermethylated probes show delta beta value ≥0.1 and correspond to 46 genes. Functional analyses using GO, KEGG and DAVID knowledgebase indicates that hypomethylated genes are associated with Wnt signaling, cell adhesion, blood coagulation, and regulation of transcription, whereas hypermethylated genes are enriched with cytoskeleton organization and small GTPase mediated signal transduction. One of the genes hypomethylated in blood DNA of HCC cases prior to diagnosis is TET1 that was found to be 8-fold overexpressed in HCC tumors in our previous studies and implicated in gene-specific hypomethylation. Interestingly, 75% of differentially methylated sites in blood DNA of HCC cases are hypomethylated prior to diagnosis. Validation by pyrosequencing of four hypomethylated probes including CpGs in the CpG island shore of BRUNOL5 that was linked to fatty liver disease in earlier reports and found demethylated and overexpressed in HCC tumors, suggests their predictive potential. Our results establish the possible predictive value of aberrant methylation, in particular DNA hypomethylation, in blood DNA for risk of HCC. This study was supported by Showalter Trust and Purdue Center for Cancer Research Awards granted to BS. Citation Format: Katarzyna Lubecka-Pietruszewska, Lucinda Kurzava, Hannah Buvala, Kirsty Flower, Samer Gawrieh, Jennifer Mansfield, Naga Chalasani, James M. Flanagan, Barbara Stefanska. Differential DNA methylation in peripheral blood DNA as a biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma risk. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2959. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2959
Childhood obesity is a global epidemic. One approach addressing childhood obesity is through federally subsidized school meals programs. The U.S. National School Lunch Program mandates school nutrition standards aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As students consume a significant proportion of their total intake during the school day, increasing access to healthy foods at school is proposed to improve student dietary outcomes. The purpose of this review is to assess how school lunch interventions and policy changes in the last ten years (namely the 2006-2007 Wellness Policies and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010) affected student food behavior. PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct were searched for primary research studies evaluating student food behavior in the U.S. school lunch setting. Only policy evaluations and interventions implemented during specified policy time periods were included. A total of twenty-nine studies meeting inclusion criteria were identified and reviewed. Plate waste, intake, selection, and purchasing patterns. Seventeen studies reported improved food behavior changes (increased selection, intake, and sales of healthy foods, and decreased plate waste). Twelve studies reported negative food behavior outcomes (decreased selection, intake, and sales of healthy foods, and increased plate waste). The majority of studies indicated that increasing access to healthy foods during school lunch improved students’ dietary outcomes. However, these findings are not consistent across the literature. Study Design, adaptation period, sample size, food culture, quality of foods, and policy implementation challenges contribute to the success/failure of school lunch. Ongoing evaluation of these programs is warranted.
To the Editor We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Original Investigation “Effects of Subsidies and Prohibitions on Nutrition in a Food Benefit Program: A Randomized Clinical Trial”1 by Harnack and colleagues in a recent issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.
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